136 THE PERCHING BIRBS. 



forms. It is a graceful little bird peculiarly adapted to hunting for its 

 food on the face of cliffs. Thus it has long curved claws, by means 

 of which it can hold on to the merest little roughness on a rock surface. 

 It also has a long curved beak, with which' to pry into the cracks and 

 crannies for spiders and other insects, upon which it feeds. It is of a 

 pretty grey colour, with a crimson patch on each wing, and large 

 white spots upon the primaries. The wings are very large and broad, 

 giving tlie bird, when in flight, tlie motions of a butterfly. It has a 

 short sweet song, the notes of which start low dowTi in the scale, run 

 rapidly up and end abruptly. It is very common in the mountains of 

 Shansi and Shensi, but is extremely difficult to secure 



Between this bird and our next group, the tits, comes the nuthatch 

 (Sitta sinensis). This little known bird keeps almost entirely to the 

 wooded areas, where it searches for its food in the cracks and crannies 

 of the pine trees. Like the wall creeper it can scramljle up and down 

 flat, slightly rough surfaces. It is very fond of hanging upside down 

 from the pine-cones, amongst the scales of which it searches for seeds. 

 It is a small grey bird, with pale chestnut breast. The tail is short; 

 the beak rather stout, being used to split hazel nuts. In doing this 

 the bird first jams the nut into a crevice in the bark of a tree, and 

 then hammers it till it splits. It is this habit whicln gives the bird 

 its name. 



The tits are represenfed by several species, of which the prettiest 

 is the long-tailed titmouse (Acredula caudata). Birds of this species 

 go about in small flocks of a dozen or so, and are very pretty to watch, 

 as they flit from branchi to branch, examining every leaf and twig in 

 their interminable search for insects. 



The les^'pr tit {Pants minor) is not unlike the British tomtit, but is 

 smaller in size. Two cole tits occur, one (P. pchincnsis) in the vicinity 

 of Peking and westward, the other (P. insuhiris) in North-eastern 

 Chihli, The yellow breasted tit (P. vcnusttdus) and the crested tit 

 (Lophnpancs bcitv(ini) also are fairly common. They are all charming 

 little birds excessively active and cheery in disposition. They seem 

 to love to hang upside down from the branches, but this habit is only to 

 enable them to examine the under surfaces of leaves more freely. They 

 are easy to keep in captivity if given plenty of room and the proper 

 kind of food. It 's one of tlie prettiest siglits imaginable to see a tit 

 with a sunflower seed held firmly between its feet, hammering 

 away with its strong little beak to split it. One I owned used to dive 

 into corners after cobwebs, returning to his perch with a long mass 



